ABSTRACT
The riot outside the Astor Place Opera House on 10 May 1849 brought to a head the perceived rivalry between British and American actors over the ownership of William Shakespeare on the American stage. Persistent Anglophilia has ensured that in urban centres of culture the British are still regarded as the ultimate arbiters of Shakespeare. The critical reception of the productions attests to the persistence of Americans' preference for British actors and directors in performances of Shakespeare, and to the clash between high and low culture that such productions ostensibly represent. The royal Shakespeare Company has been increasingly looked to as the model for how Shakespeare should be performed. The road to acceptance of Shakespearean performance was paved by Ben Greet, an English impresario who produced Shakespeare in the spare manner of William Poel, with whom he had once worked. The New Jersey Shakespeare Festival has had signal success on the East Coast.
